Peter Helman
The best movie performances make it hard to imagine the character being played by anyone else. But some of the most iconic roles in cinema actually almost were played by someone else — before the original actor decided to turn them down.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Titanic
In a real-life Sliding Doors moment, Gwyneth Paltrow came very close to starring as Rose in James Cameron’s 1997 blockbuster Titanic.
“I look back at the choices I’ve made and think, ‘Why the hell did I say yes to that? And no to that?'” Paltrow told Howard Stern in 2015. “And you know, you look at the big picture and think: There’s a universal lesson here. What good is it to hold onto roles?”
The role, of course, ultimately went to Kate Winslet, who went on to be nominated for an Academy Award for her work in the film.
John Travolta, Forrest Gump
John Travolta almost played Forrest Gump before Tom Hanks was cast, but he doesn’t have any regrets.
“If I didn’t do something Tom Hanks did, then I did something else that was equally interesting or fun,” Travolta told MTV in 2007. “Or if I didn’t do something Richard Gere did, I did something equally well. But I feel good about some I gave up because other careers were created.”
All’s well that ends well: Travolta reportedly turned down Forrest Gump to star in another iconic 1994 movie, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction.
Jack Nicholson, The Godfather
Although Al Pacino rose to stardom thanks to his performance as Michael Corleone in The Godfather in 1972, he almost never got the chance, as Jack Nicholson was offered the role first.
“Back then I believed that Indians should play Indians and Italians should play Italians,” Nicholson said in a 2004 interview with Movieline. “Mario Puzo had written such a great book that if you go back to it you’ll see so much of what was special about the movie. There were a lot of actors who could have played Michael, myself included, but Al Pacino was Michael Corleone. I can’t think of a better compliment to pay him.”
Josh Hartnett, Brokeback Mountain
The star-crossed cowboy lovers in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, portrayed by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, almost looked very different. Josh Hartnett was originally supposed to star as Ennis Del Mar alongside Joaquin Phoenix as Jack Twist.
“Unfortunately, I was going to do Brokeback Mountain. I had a contract with The Black Dahlia that I had to film, so I had to drop out of it,” Hartnett told Australia’s News.com.au in 2021. “I always wanted to kiss Joaquin. So that’s my biggest regret,” he joked.
Amanda Seyfried, Guardians of the Galaxy
Mamma Mia! star Amanda Seyfried passed on the role of Gamora, the green-skinned warrior from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy series who was played by Zoe Saldaña.
“I said, ‘Who wants to see a movie about a talking tree and a raccoon?’ Which, clearly, I was very wrong,” she said in a 2020 interview with the Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast.
George Clooney, The Notebook
Instead of Ryan Gosling and James Garner, the young and old versions of The Notebook‘s Noah could’ve been played by George Clooney and Paul Newman.
Clooney turned down the role because he didn’t think he and Newman looked alike.
“He’s one of the handsomest guys you’ve ever seen. We met up [again] and I said, ‘I can’t play you. I don’t look anything like you. This is insane,'” Clooney said during the 64th BFI London Film Festival in 2020. “We just wanted to do it because we wanted to work together, [but] it ended up being not the right thing for us to do.”
Brad Pitt, The Matrix
Keanu Reeves might not have been the One.
In an appearance at the 2020 Santa Barbara International Film Festival, Brad Pitt revealed that he almost played Neo in The Matrix film series.
“I really believe it was never mine. It’s not mine. It’s someone else’s and they go and make it. I really do believe in that. I really do,” the actor said when asked about movies that he turned down. “But I did pass on The Matrix. I took the red pill.”
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